I learnt a valuable lesson when I was at the age of 23 from a work colleague who is called Tim. He basically earned the same amount of money as I did and lived a similar lifestyle. Tim told me that he was thinking of buying a flat and that he was going to cash in his investment bond to help fund the move. I was very shocked that he even had a bond and asked him how long he had had the bond, and how he had managed to get the money to put into it. I expected Tim to tell me that his parents had given him the money, but they hadn’t, he had saved up the money himself.

Tim told me that he tries to save as much money as he can per month and normally manages to save at least £100. At the time when his levels of savings reach a thousand pounds he the adds this money into his existing Investment Bond.

I was very impressed with Tim and I have to admit a little bit jealous of his money. I then thought to myself, if Tim can save, then so can I. I set myself a goal of saving up a £1000 and planned to do this within ten months. I had to be less wreckless with my money and it would be a good test for me.

It did not prove to be that difficult and it was a good feeling seeing a healthy bank balance for once. After only eight months I had saved my target of £1000. Instead of putting it into a bond, I decided to take an even bigger risk and to buy some shares. I am pleased to report that only 2 yrs later I sold the shares and made a profit of 60% - pure luck it has to be said. This I have to admit was pure luck as I had simply guessed at who to invest in. I chose a company whose share price had reached a new year low after it had reported a bad set of results. I did not just make some sort of crazy punt or gamble. I had looked into the company and had read some interesting reports about how it had changed the management structure etc. I had a good feeling about it and thought what the heck - let’s speculate to accumilate.

This taught me a valuable lesson in life and I have now managed to set up my own stuttering treatment center where I teach people the art of how to stop stuttering. I firmly believe that it is very important to save cash into an emergency fund whether it is for personal or business use - this enables one to have a piece of mind - less stress certainly makes me a content boy. I am also a partner in a composite doors business - this is something I really enjoy as it is basically the profits from all of my successful investments.